The Desert Queen
by RangerBlack
Summary: It was history in action and Sasori refused to miss it,especially since it was in his own home village. The birth of the newest desert child, too bad he forgot to leave Orochimaru behind. Of memories and new beginnings.
1. A Perfected Pause

The Desert Queen by RangerBlack

**It was history in action and Sasori refused to miss it, especially since it was in his own home village. The occasion? The 4****th**** Kazekage, who was the son of the Third Kazekage, was expecting his own first-born.**

"**Like a family reunion," the hulking figure murmured sarcastically. "Isn't that right Grand Pa?" His dry drawl was made to a shaggy haired puppet. Its golden glass eyes stared blindly forward to the lean dark-haired criminal lounging in the desert's blistering sunlight pouring in through a large reinforced window. The puppet was still as dangerous with its preserved skin and inhuman weapons hidden inside its shell – more so even - as it had been breathing in his village's scalding summer air. The taunt at its once-life did nothing for the puppet, only the man basking before him could respond to its Master's musings.**

**Amber eyes slit open despite the sun's insistence to do otherwise. Orochimaru tilted his head slightly to view the late Kazekage's deadened glass eyes the same color as that of his once renowned Iron Sands.**

"**I can't seem to grasp the importance this issue has for you Sasorisan. Birth after all happens in even the most desolate of places, even here." Orochimaru's voice, silk compared to that of his partner's roughed growl, slid through the room's silence. Avian eyes peered coldly into that of the puppet's and ignored the refraction of light that made it seem as though the lifeless being pleaded for his voice through proxy.**

"**You know this is about more than the child," Sasori snapped as rudely as always. "It is always a good form of tactics to apprise for your self the strengths and weaknesses of others," he preached to the rouge responsible for the murder of hundreds of men, women, and children, all members of his own village.**

**Said killer unrolled a serpent-like tongue and turned the hauntingly unblinking face of the puppet to one side, an unnatural angle for that of the living. The appendage returned to his mouth Orochimaru smirked devilishly. "I'd have no problems disposing of this Kazekage, just as you had none with his predecessor."**

**Sasori lacking a response allowed the lackluster conversation to lapse back into the silence and nonstop hum of a central air conditioning.**

**Orochimaru peered half-lidded eyes down on the barren streets of Sunagakure. Three floors below him was the image of a pseudo-ghost town, nothing roamed within the sun's brutal heat-light. Only a lone tawny desert cat stalked from in the hazy shadows, prowling for a scorpion turned snack. Breaths passed without number into obscurity as the burning star high above it all moved with in an agonizingly slow creep. His daze crested over the flash of metal, his senses awakened he watched as the heat wave dissipated into the endless glare of golden quartz sands. **

"**You say we'll know about the birth; how so?" **

**Sasori started at the man's voice once again sliding without friction through the stillness of the room. A frown that could not be seen pulled at his features, his eyes - pinpoints of burgundy – narrowed further as the creak of wooden joints cracked the serenity of the moment.**

"**Shinobi of the Sand are under obligation to carry official news throughout the village. In turn we are expected to follow orders issued, or in this case, pay homage to the new heir," Sasori muttered darkly.**

"**Primitive," Orochimaru commented lightly. "And if the child is female?"**

"**She would be revered but not heir, and we would still be expected to give our blessings," the native replied blithely, the snap and pop of false joints becoming more frequent as he began to move once again. His beady eyes glared at the Konoha-born ninja as he slipped into a moment of unvoiced musings. **

"**And in a matter of months she'd be simply female, yes?" Orochimaru inquired, his voice taking on a lilt that spoke clearly his captured interest, something only few people knew as a dangerous thing to bare witness to. **

**Within Hiruko's depths Sasori smiled in satisfaction. His eyes bright he answered with smoothness uncommon to his speech patterns.**

"**No, we honor our royal women. They are invaluable as the mothers of future Kazekages. If a girl is born she will be trained as a warrior and groomed as though for Kageship. If no brother follows her she will rule through the marriage to a selected ninja of appropriate strengths." Unbeknownst to the puppeteer his own voice carried his love for his birth-village into the ears of a born and bred manipulator. **

**Cunning obvious on his marble face yet concealed by a fall of dusky black hair Orochimaru took the following heartbeats to execute the perfect pause. There was no rush here, and besides, it rasped on Sasori's nerves, an endeavor unique to the Snake Master Sannin considering it often resulted a lesser man's death.**

(Continued in Part Two)


	2. Of Memories And New Beginnings

The Desert Queen by RangerBlack (Part Two)

**Outside the window villagers peered out their doors at ninja clad in drab fatigues trademarked by the Village Hidden in the Sand. Behind him Sasori was becoming agitated by the fresh wave of silence. Smiling with the smugness of a feline Orochimaru once again spoke into the empty air between them, not because he feared the Puppeteer's wrath but because the time for questions and answers was running shorter by the second. And despite his unforgivable knowledge in escaping a shortly numbered lifespan the cold-blooded abomination of a man was obsessed with the loss of time so rich in potential.**

"**And with brothers?"**

**Sasori glared daggers at the draping figure seated on the wide windowsill. It was clear he was being abused within their repertoire, but he disliked leaving things unfinished. He too found wasted time a despicable passed time too often employed within a lifespan, a handicap of pursued knowledge. A curse he had dispelled from his character over two decades before.**

"**She will be an invaluable asset to the one chosen to lead, as a shinobi bound by blood to loyalty, as a counsel member and as a tie to another village through an arranged marriage. It is even possible her children one day may become eligible to contend against their cousins for the title."**

**Although words were being spoken it felt more like a battle of wills between the two. Each played their cards one by one waiting for the true matter to come to light, for their aces to finish the skirmish. A ninja disappeared into the boarding establishment's front entrance and Orochimaru sealed his finale.**

"**How odd for a government of such basic instincts," he murmured softly, the count down to the end of this flash of communication growing ever closer as even still more questions came to being inside the brimless depths of his mind. "I read once, a tale of the Sand at its conception, of a Kazekage, the first I believe, who birthed a son from his elder sister to insure the royal line's poetical to be as rich as that in which in had first become. Any truth to the fable Sasorisan?"**

"**You read right, they were half-siblings though. Is there something you're not telling me Orochimaru," Sasori snapped harshly. It was becoming obvious the man was playing games and if there was anything more annoying then silence it was Orochimaru's bouts of cat-and-mouse. It was high time he called this game to an end.**

"**How wonderfully barbaric," the pale man exclaimed in fascination, also changing the direction of the conversation back into his design. **

"**Just where did you **_**read**_** these **_**tales**_** Snake," The cumbersome criminal growled darkly. No fool he saw the ruse for what it was and corrected himself by forcing the issue. Pressing the man for answers was difficult to say the least, doing so with vague insinuations made it impossible. **

**Orochimaru smiled widely, openly, as sounds increased within the hall, coming ever closer. "A true Master, even of the lowly snake, knows that even dead men tell tales. It's all about how you go about hearing of them Sasorisan," he chuckled richly.**

"**Don't play word games with me. And when I need a refresher course on my art I'll let you know," Sasori barked sharply.**

**Orochimaru laughed outright. Sasori was reaching for his triggers when Orochimaru once again smiled and spoke, his silk-like voice still thick with amusement.**

"**No you won't Sasorisan but I'll hold you to it none the less," he murmured before grinning smugly. "Brace yourself, the happy news arrives."**

"**Orochi-"**

**A brisk rap on the door signaled the end of their growing dispute. Sasori glared, Orochimaru slid gracefully off the sill and graciously answered the Sand's summon.**

"**Oh yes, we'll be there to honor the little girl. No worries," Orochimaru cooed sickly sweetly.**

**Sasori's anger faded even at his partner's current jovial mood.**

'**A girl?'**

"**It seems as though you'll be welcoming a princess to the village Sasorisan," that blasted voice chuckled still.**

"**A Queen. As the first born she is and always be a desert Queen," he corrected.**

"**Ah; aren't you a bit old for young love Sasori**_**kun**_**?" Orochimaru teased venomously. **

"**Silence, we leave in the hour. Pack your things." Sasori snapped a few more joints and turned to pin his partner with a garnet stare. "And don't you dare kill her."**

"**Deal," Orochimaru replied before sporting another feline-like grin. "Put away that monster and let's get out of this sandpit already." He was out the door before he finished speaking.**

"**I shouldn't have brought him here. Should have made him swear not to hurt her. Damn it, I'm slipping." A light came to the once-man's wine colored eyes as he found himself under the desert sun milling about on familiar streets of his childhood.**

"**This will all be yours child, to love and hate. May your life amongst these silica and quartz grains be the strength within your bones, as I had found them in my time," he murmured to the wind knowing full well it would deliver the message to the young one. In time of course, the desert after all was the proof all things came with time. To Sasori, this knowledge was a bitter memory, but to Temari of the Sand it could be different.**

**End of the First Chapter**


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